Yeah, I liked her older self-effacing humor a lot better than her crotchety old bitch "humor." Don't forget her weird thing about calling Michelle Obama a "tranny."

Forget it? I'm the one who submitted that, along with the description heading, "Rest in Peace, you crazy old shrew." It was my initial reaction, and ever since I've been hoping that it won't make it out of the hopper.

Here's the thing about that. My best friend is a 69 year old disability advocate for legal aid. She and I were lovers 20 years ago, but now it's like we're married. This woman is undeniably crazy. She has a history of being sexually abused by her father that is so horrible I try not to think about it. She has a hoarding problem that's worse than anything you've ever seen on reality TV. She's incredibly generous and she saves lives. Years ago, she met a man with a similar history of abuse and a horrible physical disability and they became brother and sister, and she took care of him for the rest of his life. I helped her take care of him at the end, and it's one of the few things I am truly proud of. When I die, you can put "ASSWIPER" on my tombstone.

But she has a streak of anger running through her like you would not believe: at politicians, at other drivers who do absolutely nothing wrong, at me, and at, uh, niggers arabs and jews.

Yep. Now, this woman has thrown her whole self into getting help for people who are members of these same groups, fought government bureaucracies, and worked miracles for these people. But her racist rants are the kind of thing you normally only see on the internet.

Here is someone who had horrible things done to her, and has done a lot of wonderful things, and turns all the rage into words. That's a kind of alchemy.

Good people can say terrible things. I think we all have examples from our own lives.

I have a confession: I have a friend who was one of the more whacked-out notorious figures of the Truther movement. She passed away a few months ago, and I still think about her and miss her. But I cannot deny that she was wrong, dead wrong, about nearly every aspect of government, society, and public policy.

The great contradiction is, she made every effort to live her life honestly, fairly, and justly. Yet beyond a certain point, her ability to tell truth from lies was completely broken. She did her very best, but with equipment that was entirely defective. That's just how it is with some people.